Does Fox News Have to Sue Some Republicans Now?

A group of right-wing conspiracists has produced a 25-minute phantasm of Obama-rage posing as a "documentary," and it's airing in battleground states. Will Fox News sue to keep them from using its clips, like it does against Democrats? Probably not!

The movie, called "Breaking Point," is an excellent reference guide to almost every feverish lie told about the Obama White House since last January: The czars, the Muslim-love (it helpfully shows Obama saying nice things about Islam over disembodied chants of "Allahu Akbar!"), the campaign donations from Hamas. It was created by the Republican National Trust Political Action Committee, a DC-based outfit funded by Chuck Norris and others, and it's airing in Wisconsin, Kentucky, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.

The film makes use of footage from a variety of news outlets, including MSNBC, CBS News, and CNN, but because it's about how Barack Obama is a Muslim socialist, it of course had to pull some clips from Fox News. There's a good 41-second soundbite of Fox's Brett Baier explaining how leftists caused the housing crisis through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and John McCain tried to stop them!), as well as contributions from Glenn Beck, Megyn Kelly, and the geniuses at Fox Business Channel.

But the Republican National Trust messed with the wrong network, because Fox is so committed to maintaining its sterling reputation for balance, integrity, and accuracy that it will totally sue you if you try to sully its finely wrought reporting by using it in a filthy political ad. Democratic candidate for Senate in Missouri Robin Carnahan learned that the hard way in September, when Fox served her campaign with a federal complaint because she used footage of Chris Wallace in a campaign commercial which, according to Fox, undermined the "public's faith in the accuracy and integrity of [its] reports [and] harmed the value of the original work by compromising its apparent objectivity." Apparent!

Anyway, let's see if Fox News sues the pants of these GOP heavyweights for undermining the public's faith in Brett Baier. A call to the Republican National Trust wasn't immediately returned; a Fox News spokesperson says she's working on an answer.

UPDATE: Dianne Brandi, Fox News' executive vice president of legal and business affairs, says, "We were not aware of this until it was brought to our attention today and we're currently in the process of reviewing it." We bet they give it two thumbs up, but we'll let you know if they sue.